Clicky
National, Back Page

Agriculture turns to commercial farming


Published : 26 Jan 2021 10:04 PM | Updated : 27 Jan 2021 09:29 AM

Bangladesh agriculture has now turned to commercial farming as it sees a large scale production of crops for sale and export, intended for widespread distribution to wholesalers or retail outlets. 

According to the Agriculture Ministry, agricultural development of the country is now in an enviable position. Due to the timely steps and direction of the government towards sustainable agricultural development, subsistence agriculture has now been transformed into commercial agriculture. 

Agriculture Minister Dr. Abdur Razzaque had said in a recent webinar, “Bangladesh's economy is in a better position than many other countries in the world. Agriculture is the main driving force to ensure food and nutrition security for all and alleviate poverty. In addition, the agriculture sector can play a vital role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.”  

Agriculture is playing an important role in food grain production, ensuring sustainable food security, employment and export trade. About 80 percent of the country’s people still depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

Bangladesh now exports food to different countries. Despite having a huge population, declining arable land and natural disasters like climate change, floods, droughts, salinity and hostile nature, the country has now become an example in the world for food grain production. 

Bangladesh is gradually moving ahead of the world average production of paddy, wheat and maize. The contribution of the agricultural sector to the GDP of Bangladesh is now 13.60 percent. After 50 years of independence, the country has reached such a stage. 

According to the Labor Force Survey (2016), 40.06 percent of the total labor force of the country is still engaged in agriculture.

After independence the country, whose annual food grains (paddy and wheat) production was only one crore tonnes, now has been able to increase its food grain production almost fourfold despite continuous shrinking of framing land. Bangladesh now produces about five crore tonnes of paddy per year. 

According to a report titled 'The State of Fish and Aquaculture-2018' by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Bangladesh now ranks third in the world in the production of fish and vegetables from natural sources. 

Poultry and eggs are meeting the needs of 160 million people. The annual (2018-19) egg production of the country is now 1700 crore. 

Bangladesh ranks fourth in the world in goat production and fifth in goat meat production. Bangladesh is self-sufficient in banana cultivation. Fruits like strawberry, dragon fruit, baukul, apple kul, Arabic date etc originated at this time. 

According to the information provided by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, milk production in Bangladesh in 2019-20 stood at 10.68 million tonnes. Meat production is now 7.67 tonnes. Egg production is now 17.36 billion pieces. At present fish production is 44.88 lakh tonnes. Hilsa production in Bangladesh is now 5.33 lakh metric tons. 

In order to reduce the production cost of the crop, the price of fertilizer was reduced four times till 2017 and now it is fixed at a lower price, MOP of Tk 70 is now Tk 15 and DAP of Tk 90 is now Tk 25. In the fiscal year 2019-20, the retail price of DAP fertilizer at the farmer level was further reduced from Tk 25 to Tk 16. 

Through several projects 5354802 coconut, palm, date and betel saplings have been distributed and planted across the country. Farmers are continuously encouraged to cultivate various types of unconventional and exotic fruits like Malta, Rambutan, Dragon, etc. 

Agricultural economist Shamsul Alam said, “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has a political commitment to save the farmers. That pledge has brought unimaginable success in agriculture and established it as a role model in the world”.